Member of staff

Laura has worked in research for over 15 years, working in a range of sectors including wildlife ecology, conservation genetics, animal welfare and human development. Prior to starting at The Donkey Sanctuary, Laura completed a PhD on European pine martens in Scottish forested landscapes, followed by a Research Fellowship at the University of Exeter / Mammal Society. Laura joined the Donkey Sanctuary in 2017 as a Senior Researcher, working on projects both in the UK and overseas. Recent projects include exploring the links between animal welfare and human development in low to middle income countries, and developing novel techniques to analyse welfare data, as well as supporting student projects to investigate management systems that support donkey welfare and ecosystem health. 

Andrew is an experienced senior manager with over 30 years’ experience working with donkeys. He is currently the Director of Equine Operations (Sanctuaries) and leads the UK and Ireland farms, European Teams, Equine Behaviourists and Animal Management System team. As well as managing the farms capital building programs and farm vehicle program for The Donkey Sanctuary.

He led the scoping, building and development of The Donkey Sanctuaries online education platform (The Donkey Academy) and has been instrumental in the design and  implementation of a variety of campaigns and research projects and papers.

Liz graduated in 2002 with a degree in Equine Science. Liz has been working at The Donkey Sanctuary since 2009 holding the positions of research assistant, senior research assistant and now in her current role as research communications officer. Liz has been actively involved in a number of our projects in the past, more recently she helps with coordination and facilitation, in particular with the Reid Student Bursary for Donkey Welfare. Liz looks after our online publication database the Publications and Research Outputs database. Liz has also been involved in writing material for our courses hosted on the virtual learning platform The Donkey Academy. 

Ben leads The Donkey Sanctuary in the understanding and implementation of scientific principles of equine behaviour and human behaviour change for animal welfare. Having been part of the training team running courses on donkey care and welfare, he is now part of the research and operational support team.

He has spent over 20 years working as an equine and human trainer and is the author of several books on equine behaviour and clicker training, as well as the creator of a unique series of individual equine training plans.